The disproportionately high value of small patches for biodiversity conservation

Small habitat patches have been historically neglected in conservation, primarily because extinction risk is higher small patches. Nevertheless, sets of usually harbor more species than one or a few larger equal total area. Resolving this inconsistency key to policy and practice biodiversity conservation. Our analysis 32 datasets (603 2290 taxa) provides two novel lines evidence confirming that disproportionately high value for biodiversity. First, large even when considering only conservation concern. Second, the are very compared Therefore, does not decrease cumulative We contend acknowledging patches, will be necessary step stemming loss Anthropocene.